The Rosenberg Trial :: essays research papers

The Rosenberg trial, which ended in adouble execution in 1953, was one of the centurys most debatable trials. It was sometimes referred to as, "thebest publicized spy hunt of all times" as it came to the publiceye in the time of atom-spy hysteria. Husband and wife,Julius and Ethel Rosenberg were charged with gang tocommit espionage. Most of the controversy surrounding thiscase came from mass speculation that there were influencesbeing reinforced by behind-the-scenes pressure, mainly fromthe government, which was detected through with(predicate) muchinconsistencies in testimonies and other misconduct in thecourt. Many shared the belief that Ethel Rosenbergexpressed best as she wrote in one of her last earn beforebeing executed, "-knowing my husband and I must bevindicated by history...We are the first victims of AmericanFascism." Some people believed that the Rosenbergs had a unsafe background which made these innocent peoplefall victim to the government. In Septem ber 1940 JuliusRosenberg was hired by US army Signal Corps as a juniorengineer, but fired March 1945 because he was found to bea member of the communist party. He was employed in1945 with Emerson Radio. Finally, in 1946 BernardGreenglass, his brother-in-law, asked him to a join warsurplus business called Pitt Machine Products Company.Ethel Rosenberg supported herself as a teenager throughpageant prize money she won as a singer and dancer. Lateron she was employed as a clerk for National Shipping butlost her job for confederacy activities. They lived a happily marriedlife with two sons until June 15, 1950 when brother-in-law,David Greenglass named Julius and Ethel as people whorecruited him to spy for the Soviet Union. The case judgedby Irving R. Kaufman began on March 6,1957. TheRosenbergs, as rise as Morton Sobell, were charge ofdelivering information, documents, sketches and othermaterial vital to the national defense of our country, to aforeign power, namely, to Soviet Russia. Greenglass testifiedthat it was he who turned over most of these materials to theRosenbergs because of pressure. On March 29, after amuch publicized court case, the couple were found guilty andsentenced to be executed in the week of May 21, and theiraccused co-conspirator, Sobell, got 30 years in jail becausehe was not explicitly connected to the atom bomb. Manypeople were against this decision and the president tried to excuse such rash actions "The execution of two human beingsis a grave matter. But even graver is the thought of themillions of dead whose death may be directly attributable towhat these spies have done." After many failed appeals,Julius and Ethel were electrocuted minutes apart on June 19,